The reduction in size of semiconductor components and increased usage of semiconductor processors has lead to an explosion of new electronic devices. Most, if not all, of these electronic devices require some amount of memory in order to function. The proliferation of such devices has significantly increased demand for memory that is efficient in size as well as power consumption. Smaller sized semiconductor components and memories have made numerous hand held electronic devices feasible. Examples of hand-held devices include cell phones, personal radios, walkie-talkies, personal data assistants, palm pilots, pagers, notebook computers, remote controls, voice recorders, audio recorders, video recorders, radios, small televisions, web viewers, cameras, and the like. Although some electronic devices require only relatively small amounts of memory, many newer electronic devices require an increasing amount of memory. Digital cameras, digital audio players, personal digital assistants, and the like generally seek to employ large capacity memory components, such as, for example, flash memory cards, smart media cards, compact flash cards, pen drives and/or other similar devices.
Memory components are generally divided into volatile memory and non-volatile memory. Volatile memory components generally cannot retain information stored or programmed within them when the component loses power. Such memories typically require periodic refresh cycles to maintain their information. Volatile memory components include most forms of random access memory (RAM). RAM is available in many forms such as, for example, synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). Non-volatile memory components retain their information even when power to the component is lost. Examples of non-volatile memory components include; ROM, programmable read only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flash EEPROM, and the like. Comparatively, volatile memory components generally provide faster operation at lower cost than non-volatile memory components.
Memory components generally comprise an array of memory elements plus associated semiconductor control circuitry to support various functions such that memory cells are capable of being repeatedly “written”, “erased”, and “read.” A memory element plus supporting semiconductor circuitry is referred to as a memory cell. A memory component comprises a plurality of memory cells. Individual memory cells in a memory component can be “written” with information, “erased”, or “read.” Individual memory cells are generally programmed or written to an “on” state (logic “1”) or erased to an “off” state (logic “0”). When a memory component is “read,” the information (the “on” state or “off” state) is retrieved in such a manner that the state of the individual memory cells remains unaltered. Typically, a memory component is addressed in order to be written, erased, or read. Control lines, generally referred to a word lines and bit lines, or row address select (RAS) and column address select (CAS) lines, control access to specific memory devices for purposes of writing, erasing or reading a specific memory cell. Memory components are often fabricated with inorganic solid state technology, such as, crystalline silicon devices. A common semiconductor device employed in memory cells is the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET).
Memory component developers and manufacturers are constantly striving to increase storage capacity, reduce power consumption and reduce cost of manufacture for memory components. To increase component densities, manufacturers typically focus on scaling down semiconductor device dimensions (e.g. at sub-micron levels). In order to achieve such densities, smaller feature sizes and more precise feature shapes are often required. This may include the width and spacing of interconnecting lines, spacing and diameter of contact holes, and the surface geometry, such as corners and edges, of various features. A postage-stamp-sized piece of silicon may contain tens of millions of transistors, each transistor as small as a few hundred nanometers. Organic memory cells offer a new technology for achieving even higher memory component densities. As components increase in complexity, power consumption and efficiency of the components becomes more critical. In order to obtain increased utility from such improvements, a resulting memory component requires supporting circuitry capable of rapid state changes.